the others?"

"We've got Brook; you'd your arm round him so tight that Ned and I
lifted you together. He's on ahead; the masons are carrying him, and
Ned's showing the way. Canst walk now?"

"Yes, I'm better now. How did you manage to breathe, dad?"

"We didn't breathe, Jack; we're too old hands for that. When we saw you
fall we just drew back, took a breath, and then shut our mouths, and
went down for you just the same as if we'd been a groping for you under
water. We got hold of you both, lifted you up, and carried you along as
far as we could before we drew a breath again. You're sharp, Jack, but
you don't know everything yet." And Bill Haden chuckled to find that for
once his practical experience taught him something that Jack had not
learned from his books.

Jack now hurried along after Bill Haden, and in a few minutes reached
the place fixed upon. Here the miners were engaged in restoring
consciousness to Mr. Brook, who, under the influence of water dashed on
his face and artificial respiration set up by alternately pressing upon
the chest and allowing it to rise again, was just beginning to show
signs of life. Their interest in their employment was so great that it
was not until Mr. Brook was able to sit up that they began to talk about
the future.

Jack's account of the state of things near the shaft was listened to
gravely. The fact that the whole of the system of ventilation had been
deranged, and the proof given by the second explosion that the mine was
somewhere on fire, needed no comment to these experienced men. It
sounded their death-knell. Gallant and unceasing as would be the efforts
made under any other circumstance to rescue them, the fact that the pit
was on fire, and that fresh explosions might at any moment take place,
would render it an act of simple madness for their friends above to
endeavour to clear the shaft and headings, and to restore the
ventilation. The fact was further impressed upon them by a sudden and
simultaneous flicker of the lamps, and a faint shake, followed by a
distant rumble.

"Another blast," Bill Haden said. "That settles us, lads. We may as well
turn out all the lamps but two, so as to have light as long as we last
out."

"Is there no hope?" Mr. Brook asked presently, coming forward after he
had heard from Haden's mate the manner in which he had been so far
saved.

"Not a scrap, master," said Bill Haden. "We are like rats in a trap; and
it would ha' been kinder o